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The core problems of sociological and philosophical theories of knowledge remain insoluble and unrelated as long as both theories start from static models. The problems can be solved, and the respective theories related to each other, without undue difficulties if the acquisition of knowledge is conceptualized as a long-term process which takes place within societies also considered as long-term processes. This approach has the added advantage of being in closer agreement with the evidence. The paper indicates what needs to be unlearned and what to be learned in order to prepare the way for such a unified theoretical framework which can serve as a guide to, and which can be in turn corrected by, empirical sociological studies of all types of knowledge, scientific and practical as well as non-scientific or ideological. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses Alan Ryan's point of view on philosophy and Norman Denzin's discussion of the interrelationship between theory and method. The relevant branch of philosophy in Ryan's view will be the one interested in organized bodies of knowledge about human social phenomena. Ryan calls these subjects "social sciences" and carefully explains that naming them in this fashion does not imply they meet the criteria of "scientificity" typically associated with physics or chemistry. Denzin, on the other hand, asserts that methods have great theoretical relevance. His views on the relationship between theory and method presents a series of seven methodological principles. The author seeks to establish that the substance of these principles is compatible with Ryan's view on how social science ought to be done.